Len Goodman jumped to Charlotte Hawkins’ defence on Good Morning Britain after Piers Morgan poked fun at her Strictly Come Dancing stint.
The former Strictly head judge, 73, pointedly told Piers he had no place criticising Charlotte’s dancing when nobody would want to see Piers himself dancing!
Len told Charlotte he was gutted not to have been judging Strictly while she took part.
That prompted Piers to quip: “Was she any good? Was she given a rough time? I saw some technical deficiencies.”
Well, Len wasn’t having that!
He retorted: “Yes, of course she was given a rough time! You mustn’t talk about that Piers, as we’ve never seen you dance and, to be honest, I don’t think we’d ever want to!”
Len 1 – 0 Piers!
Of course, it was all just a bit of fun and banter between the group.
On a more serious note, Len – who still judges on Dancing With The Stars in America – gave his support to new head judge Shirley Ballas, who didn’t have the easiest of first years on the show.
Some fans felt Shirley, who replaced Len on the panel, was too technical in her feedback. And, of course, there was that infamous clash with the now-axed Brendan Cole…
But Len said: “I thought she did a terrific job. It’s always difficult to step in on whoever’s shoes they are – I’m not saying because it was me.
“It was tricky but she went her own way, became her own person and I thought lots of her comments were good and useful to people, so I thought she did okay.”
As for professional dancer Brendan being axed, despite being part of the show since day one, diplomatic Len said he didn’t know all the facts and couldn’t really make a comment.
Rumours have been swirling Brendan’s contract wasn’t renewed because of his row with Shirley on air, when they bickered over the amount of rise and fall in a tango.
“Listen, I’ve not spoken to Brendan, I’ve not spoken to Shirley about it, I’ve not spoken to BBC about it. I only know what we all know.”
He then joked: “It’s a bit like Putin, I don’t think we’ll ever know!”
Len was then asked if he thought Brendan had been “too naughty or tricky” in his dealings with the judges, which included that famous clash with Shirley when he stuck up for dance partner Charlotte.
“I don’t think he was,” said Len.
“I have always thought the pros should defend their celebrities, because if you’re not careful, you can come over as a bit of a bully, picking on people that can’t defend themselves.
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“So I think it’s admirable to say, ‘No wait a minute, I can’t agree with you on that’. Maybe he went a tad over the top with it, but no, I think it’s good that the pros defend their partners.”
Len was on Good Morning Britain to discuss his new campaign with Santander called Scam Avoidance School, which aims to teach over 60s how to spot when they’re at risk of being scammed.
“It seems like scammers are everywhere today, using all kinds of sneaky tricks to scam us over 60s – whether it’s with emails, cold calls or even at the cash machine,” said Len.
“But enough is enough. People of my age – we’ve got to have our wits about us, be more aware and more alert to scams so we can quickstep our way around the dangers and keep our bank accounts safe.”
All of the bank’s 806 branches will run hour-long free SAS classes from March 19 following research that more than five million over 65s have been targeted by scammers.
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